You know, the problem with living out of your freezer for months at a time is that when you ultimately do head down to the supermarket to grab some dead animal flesh you are shocked at the price because you’ve not had to be aware of pricing for the last several months.
Even at the grocery places that traditionally have been the least expensive it was still, to me, outrageous what the prices on beef was.
Chicken even took a hit….Winco had been selling boneless skinless chicken breast at 1.98/#. Then a couple weeks ago there was a note limiting purchase to four trays of meat. Then last week they were completely out. And then when I was in there today…it was back…at $2.18/#…almost a 10% increase. Hmmm.
Pork loin roasts have now become my ‘go to’ for animal protein since it’s the least expensive of the meats I usually buy.
But, geez Ruiz, 85/15 at $5.50? 93/7 at almost $7? Owie. I need to keep my eyes open for deals on meats like I do for deals on ammo.
It surprises me that you would go along with the big-box grocery stores’ take it or leave it pricing approach. Are there no local farms and farmers’ markets? If there are, make friends with the local farmers and shop at the farmer’s markets. You will not regret it. FYI, unlike the big-box grocery stores, you can always try to haggle with these folks.
I live in an area with plenty of farms and farmers’ markets. Every fall, I go thirds on a whole cow with my two brothers-in-law. The nice thing is the farmer also cuts up and divides up the meat to our requirements. All I do is vacuum pack the stuff into smaller portions. The nice things are the quality, and we don’t pay the big-box grocery overhead.
At the next estate sale, maybe ask to look at the deep freeze.
Sounds like you are going to be scouting the highways for roadkill. I’ve thought about it. Just speed up a little instead of slowing down. Hmm.
Not happy about inflation, but it’s what I expect to see. The wild fluctuations however, leave me with a serious case of “WTF is doing this?”
A real BTD,picked up a couple pork loin roasts @.99$, sale til tues but limited room in deep freeze. Found they’re discontinuing my pork rinds-bought all they had at closeout price. Waiting for spare ribs to come in for rain check. Pork everything but the squeal.
May now need a meat pimp to go to not just a metals pimp.
Check the price on frozen duck… I was shocked that it was cheaper than just about any other meat when it was on sale a couple of weeks ago. It’s tasty, all dark meat, and a nice change of pace. My kids loved it.
Even last week, it was cheaper than steak.
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I was hoping to take a feral hog or deer this past season (expired yesterday) but no dice. Wildlife numbers in area are very low little was spotted this year (or poached for all we know, local ranchers take care of business). We still have some from past seasons, but it will dig into reserve which we don’t like so early into this.
We purchased half a grass fed beef this past spring at $3.00/lb. Sounds like a great price but that is hanging weight so it works out to more than that. They cut and processed the meat, vacuum sealed it in the weights we requested and froze it for us. We also shopped all the sales where most recently we were able to buy skinless boneless chicken breast and pork loins & tenderloins at $1.79/lb so we have kept the freezers topped off. The area we will in has an over abundance of deer to where they are a nuisance and a lot of turkey. We also have a decent sized pond on our property full of bass and black crappie.
This is not just a supply chain disruption, this is what the beginnings of a long drawn out collapse look like. It is going to get worse, much worse. Get all the garden seeds you may need to the next few years and a copy of Suzanne Ashworth’s book Seed to Seed.
Chicken breast was the one item we couldn’t find on our restocking trip Friday… They were completely out of frozen or freah. It has also been $1.99/lb here as other stuff is getting more expensive.
The good news is that the store was essentially fully stocked otherwise.
I was shocked the other day to realize that on-sale regular ground beef is $5! I still bought some because we were getting low & I like ground beef – but I’ll be buying less of it in the future. We’ll be eating more home-grown chicken & rabbit.
The wife bought another upright freezer. $700+, and a couple months to deliver. This isn’t to duplicate the other one, this is just insurance in case the one in service takes a puke. I guess she was more shocked by cost increases than I was.
Fit the door with a Small Plastic Child Safety Catch/lock the kind of thing fitted to stop toddlers from opening the doors. this way you know there is no way the door can come open.
Hamburger can be had cheap if you purchase a tired old cow and have it processed. The meat is too tough for anything other than hamburger but old retired cows don’t cost much, your are mostly out the cost of labor for the butcher.
You don’t have to not shop for months. A couple of weeks will do.
I found a 4.4 lb package of sirloin for $3.99/lb and grabbed it looking for more. Sirloin is not the best but it makes a great beef stew. Thank you Joe Depends.